Abstract: A system for sealing the working vacuum chamber of a charged particle beam machine which is movable with respect to a workpiece is disclosed. The system includes a housing with a central compartment having wire-shaped elements urged against the workpiece to provide a seal therebetween, and lateral compartments, each having a packing of sealing material which is biased against the workpiece surface of a spring arrangement. Rollers and a flexible lip seal arrangement having a flexible sheath of synthetic rubber are also disclosed.

Abstract: In a charge carrier beam machine, as an electron beam welding machine, a system for establishing the relative position of a beam impingement spot on a workpiece surface and a machine reference position, as a beam gun axis, comprises an X-ray sensor defining at least one measuring field boundary intersecting the workpiece surface at a line of intersection spaced from the gun axis. During repetitive measuring periods, the beam is deflected from the normal working position along a measuring path, which crosses the line of intersection, and a signal functionally related to the period of time the beam needs to travel from a reference position along the measuring path to the line of intersection is produced. This signal comprises the desired information about the relative position and can be used in a regulating apparatus for maintaining a desired relationship.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for the control of the filler material supply rate in energy beam welding as electron beam welding is disclosed. The width or cross-sectional area of a gap defined by opposed faces of two workpiece parts to be joined is measured by radiation, preferably X-ray radiation, and the rate with which filler material is supplied into a welding zone produced by the energy beam is controlled in proportion to the result of the measurement. The measurement may be made in advance of the welding zone and the control is then delayed by a period of time, which the welding zone takes to arrive at the position of the gap, where the measurement was made.